We don't know what's more awesome: Hugh Jackman's recipe for rock-hard abs, or the fact that he's on the cover of Good Housekeeping.

Either way, the Aussie hunk is in full-steam-ahead promotional mode for "The Wolverine" (opening wide July 26), demonstrating his more domestic side on the mag's August cover. He appears wearing a turquoise V-neck sweater and sharing his trademark smile that could make any good housekeeper swoon.

In the new interview, Jackman, 44, opens up even further about what makes his family life work, especially with regards to his 17-year marriage to fellow Aussie Deborrah Lee Furness. It's the role of husband that the actor calls his favorite, and it's his wife's attention to life's details that he says keeps their relationship exciting. She "makes an event out of everything," Jackman explains. "Even a takeout meal gets the good china."

Of course, since he first donned Wolverine's claws in 2000's original "X-Men" movie, Jackman has been the subject of gay rumors. At this stage in his career, the three-time Tony Awards host – who won a Tony himself in 2004 for playing the flamboyantly gay Peter Allen on Broadway – just tunes it all out. "I don't really pay attention. If someone's going to spend their time saying, 'You're really not 6' 2"; you're 5' 10",'" he says, using height as an analogy for sexual orientation, "I'll tell them once, 'I am 6' 2".' Then, whatever you want to believe, it's up to you. Am I going to waste energy going, 'I'm so mad that this person says I'm 5' 10"?' … We really only get mad when there's an element of truth, right?"

One thing that Jackman does get mad about, though, is criticism of his wife. "If anyone meets my wife, they're like, 'You're alright, Hugh, but your wife is awesome.' Everyone who meets her loves her. So it's just wrong. It almost makes me sad for the people [saying those things]. They're obviously in a bad place."

Still, Jackman tells the mag that the gossip takes its toll on Furness, 57, who is less successful at tuning it out. "I don't want her perturbed; I worry for her," he says. What angers her most, the actor adds, are the rumors that their marriage is a sham. "She's a justice freak … When she hears the gossip, she finds it hard to shut up about it. It's frustrating that she doesn't have a voice in the situation."

Between leading roles, Jackman and Furness stay very busy as parents. They have two adopted children together, both of whom have a skin tone different than their parents. Jackman tells the mag that it was a "no-brainer" to ask for an interracial baby: "People wait 18 months to adopt a little blond girl, while biracial children are turned away."